Online services such as web conference applications allow users at remote locations to share electronic content, such as electronic documents and web content. Web conferences are used to conduct meetings and training events and/or present lectures or short presentations from any computer accessing a web conference. Web conference applications allow for online collaboration via webinars, interactive conferences, online workshops, web meetings, eLearning sessions, etc. Web conferences also often involve the exchange of data between various participants. Participants may communicate via text message, video chat, audio chat, etc.
Users operate computing devices and use computing services, such as a web conferencing service, to participate in web conferences. In many situations, one or more of the users are hosts of an online conference and other users are participants in the conference. The users are often in different geographic locations using different computing devices. There is often significant interest in live web conferences from participants in part because participants are able to ask questions about topics of interest to them. Because the participants are able to ask questions, provide input, and otherwise interact with the presenter(s) and other participants, they tend to value attending the live presentation. In contrast, there is generally significantly less interest in users accessing recorded web conferences. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that the users are often unaware that a recorded web conference includes contents that is of interest to the users. For example, if a weekly hour-long web conference during which participants ask technical questions to technical experts is recorded each week and a participant asks a question about a particular emerging technology one week, a user who is not able to attend that web conference session will be unaware that the recording of that session includes that emerging technology topic unless a participant happens to tell him. Generally, existing systems do not adequately identify content in recorded web conferences that is of potential interest to other users who were not able to attend the live web conferences and this is particularly the case when topics of discussion are not provided on an agenda or written materials associated with the web conference.